The MVP Machine

The high-tech drive to create better players is big league baseball's next cutting-edge revolution, replacing Moneyball, according to this New York Times bestseller. The Moneyball era is finished, as New York Times best-selling authors Ben Lindbergh and Travis Sawchik explain in The MVP Machine. The Oakland Athletics' ground-breaking team-building techniques were first revealed by Michael Lewis fifteen years ago. Today, every front office evaluates players using data, and the league's most intelligent teams no longer have a significant advantage in appreciating prior performance. According to their behind-the-scenes reporting, Lindbergh and Sawchik:

• How insignificant afterthoughts Mookie Betts and José Altuve developed into major sluggers and MVPs.
• How controversial pitcher Trevor Bauer became a contender for the Cy Young award
• How traditional pitching and hitting methods have been altered by modern analytical approaches
• How a tsunami of new talent is improving MLB but also potentially making it more boring to watch

Baseball's top minds have switched to out-developing opponents, obtaining larger advantages than ever by honing prospects and getting more out of older athletes who were once written off, rather than out-drafting, out-signing, and out-trading their competitors. Lindbergh and Sawchik show us how washed-up pitchers have turned into aces, explain how former fringe hitters have transformed into home run kings, and detail how coaching and scouting are being turned on their heads. A lesson offered by The MVP Machine that transcends baseball is that success comes from maximising unrealized potential rather than from concentrating on finished products.